N.W.A. came Straight Outta Compton and changed the world and the movie that captures their incredible story has broken records at the weekend box office. F. Gary Grey’s Straight Outta Compton arrived in theaters in banked $56 million, breaking the record for an R-rated film opening in August.
Our Straight Outta Compton review raved about the film and we weren’t alone in loving the story of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E. The audience measuring site CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film an A. Look for word of mouth to continue for this flick and for Straight Outta Compton to not drop off too much in its second week of release.
Last week’s top film, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation fell to second place with $17 million, bringing its total domestic earnings to $138 million.
The other big debut for the weekend, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, had to settle for a third place finish and $13.5 million. The Guy Ritchie movie failed to find a wide audience, but we suspect that before all is said and done, his fans will turn out to see his latest.
Fourth found Fantastic Four, which took a nose dive from its weak first week earnings. The Fox reboot of the Marvel superhero family banked $8 million and has only took in a total of $42 million, among the lowest in superhero movie history.
Closing out the top five is the astounding The Gift. The Joel Edgerton written-directed and starring thriller added another $6.5 million to bring its cume to $23.6 million.
Box Office Top Five:
- Straight Outta Compton, $56.1 million
- Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, $17 million (138)
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E., $13.5 million
- Fantastic Four, $8 million (42)
- The Gift, $6.5 million